Banned Books Week is an annual event held during the last week of September to help libraries and reading institutions across the U.S to realize how important and ongoing the problem of censorship is.
Banned Books Week is a great time to teach children and adults how essential the First Amendment is. Banned Books Week has grown into a premier literary event and a national awareness and advocacy campaign around censorship, according to the American Library Association.
“I think that banning books is definitely problematic. It can lead to a greater problem of missing those big themes,” Joe May, English teacher, said.
11,000 books have been challenged by censorship since 1982. In 2011, the American Library Association recorded 326 challenged books in libraries across the country. The vast majority of censorship challenges to books are by parents who attempt to protect their children, according to the A.L.A.
The five most challenged titles inside of schools during 2011 were ttyll; ttfn; l8r; g8r a series by Lauren Myracle; The Color of the Earth by Kim Dong Hwa; The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins; My Mom’s Having a Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy by Dori Hillestad Butler, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
“I think it’s good that schools are trying to update their curriculum to include new books,” May said. “But there’s definitely a time and place for certain things to be read.”
Another issue schools face is the censoring of classic books that could teach students important lessons and reading skills.
“I know that there have been parents and kids that have questioned the validity of the materials we read in class, but we try to talk about why [the English department] thinks that the books are important to read,” May said.
Some classic books that have been challenged or banned are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger; The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; and The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
“Here at LZ I think we have a good process. We try and let kids have their freedom,” May said. “In terms of a learning experience, we try and talk about why a certain book may be questioned and what society might want hide.”